Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov paid a working visit to Ankara. The main goal is to ensure the qualitative development of Kazakhstan-Turkey cooperation and reveal the potential of cooperation in new promising industries to achieve the task set by the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to accelerate economic growth of the country.

The focus of joint projects is deep grain processing, coal chemistry, oil and gas industry, petrochemistry, etc., which will allow to produce products with high added value.

In Ankara Olzhas Bektenov was received by the Head of the Republic of Turkey, held negotiations with the Vice-President of Turkey, discussed investment cooperation at a meeting with representatives of major Turkish companies and holdings, as well as spoke at the Kazakhstan-Turkey business forum.

During the reception Olzhas Bektenov conveyed to the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan warm words of greetings and best wishes on behalf of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. It was noted that the agreements reached at the level of the two heads of state on the development of interaction in the spirit of expanded strategic partnership are being actively implemented in all sectors of trade and economic, investment, energy, transport and logistics, agrarian, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

During the intergovernmental negotiations, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov and Vice-President of Turkey Cevdet Yilmaz discussed specific measures to build up mutually beneficial partnership, and expressed readiness to reveal prospects for further cooperation in the areas of transit and transport, agribusiness, manufacturing, digitalisation and tourism.

Turkey is one of Kazakhstan's top five largest trading partners and top 20 investor countries. Today, the governments of the two countries are working to ensure a stable trade volume of at least $10 billion. Kazakhstan intends to increase exports to Turkey in 34 types of goods totalling more than $630 million, including products of metallurgical, petrochemical, food and machine-building industries. In turn, the Turkish side expressed interest in the implementation of new joint projects in promising areas of the economy. The volume of freight traffic by rail and road transport has increased by 40% over the year alone. The parties outlined prospects for a three-fold increase in the volume of freight traffic within the framework of developing the potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor.

Within the framework of the 13th session of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, the delegations in an extended format considered the mechanism of strengthening industrial cooperation and outlined plans to localise pharmaceutical production, exchange best practices in medicine and strengthen cultural and humanitarian ties. 

The main topic of the meeting with representatives of the Turkish business community was to discuss prospects and identify new points of contact. 

The round table was attended by the management of the largest companies captains of Turkish business: Hüseyin Arslan, Chairman of the Board of YDA Holding, a group of construction companies, Robert Yüksel Yıldırım, Chairman of the Board of Yildirim Holding, an industrial group, the fourth largest company in the world chrome industry, Ahmet Tiriyakıoğlu, Chairman of the Board of Tiryaki Holding, one of the world's largest companies producing and exporting agricultural crops, Hüseyin Barlin, Chairman of the Board of Sisitem Lojistik, a leading Turkish logistics company, and the heads of the Board of Directors of the leading Turkish logistics company. 

The dialogue continued on the margins of the business forum with the participation of more than 500 representatives of business circles, during which Turkish entrepreneurs were acquainted with the investment climate of Kazakhstan and the state support measures provided to investors. Today, about 100 joint Kazakhstan-Turkey investment projects totalling about $3.8 billion are being implemented.

Olzhas Bektenov, addressing the business representatives, emphasised the readiness to support the implementation of projects important for the country. 

"The investment potential of our country is huge, and we are interested in further expansion of mutually beneficial co-operation with Turkey. Kazakhstan is aimed at transferring advanced technologies, localising production and creating deep processing clusters to produce high quality, highly processed products. Investors willing to cooperate in this direction will be provided with the necessary resources, infrastructure and support. The Government of Kazakhstan is ready to become a reliable and long-term partner for all those who are ready to do business in our country," Prime Minister of Kazakhstan emphasised.

Head of the Government of Kazakhstan drew attention of businessmen to the most promising areas. Among them are oil and gas chemistry, carbon chemistry, machine building with a focus on deepening the localisation of production and expanding the model range of manufactured equipment. 

"There are positive dynamics in Turkey's trade and economic relations with brotherly Kazakhstan. Great merit in this is due to business representatives, investors, exporters. I would also like to emphasise the special importance of today's negotiations. The Governments of our countries will continue to make joint efforts to develop the economies and provide all possible assistance to business. I am confident that cooperation between Kazakhstan and Turkey will expand thanks to new agreements," Vice-President of the Republic of Turkey Cevdet Yilmaz said. 

Following the results of the business forum in the presence of heads of delegations of Kazakhstan and Turkey signed 10 commercial documents in the field of investment cooperation for a total amount of over $180 million, including a memorandum on the export of finished products, agreements on the construction of a logistics hub, as well as a number of plants for the production of soda ash, sprinkler equipment, nonwoven materials, for the assembly of irrigation equipment. In addition, an agreement was signed on the exchange of best practices in the field of seed production, as well as the prospects of seed supply.

#Olzhas Bektenov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #International Cooperation #Investments #Logistics #Manufacturing industry #Trade and economic cooperation